The Nanami Code
by graveexcitement
Summary: Hinata wakes up from the Neo World Program with an extra passenger.


_A/N: This is my Yuletide gift for NightsMistress! Note that this is not completely compliant with Side: Hope, but is definitely inspired by it. Spoilers, of course, for DR3 and SDR2._

* * *

Hajime Hinata was prepared for the rapidly approaching future. The shutdown process was in progress; all they had to do was wait. Wait, and soon discover what awaited them in the waking world.

His friends were remaining calm, even in the face of the world around them breaking apart. Owari... Souda... Sonia... Kuzuryuu... Over the course of their stay on the island - in the simulation - they had become his friends. There was the risk that they would forget about each other once the shutdown completed, but... somehow, he felt that they would overcome that, if it happened. They would be friends again. And from there, they could help their comatose friends. He was sure of it.

If only... He clenched his fists, unconsciously. If only Nanami had lived, to discover the future with him. With them. Or, if nothing else, he only wished

he only wished to

wished to

 _remember her_

* * *

He woke up slowly, and laid there awhile, drifting between reality and dreamland; eventually, enough of his brain came online for him to wonder: _where the hell am I?_

It was dark, but there was a soft, green glow illuminating the space around him. The very small space. He lifted a hand, and found a solid surface not even a foot above his body.

Is this a coffin? He thought that maybe he should be feeling worried about this, but everything around him seemed... unreal, somehow. He himself felt unreal. He cast his eyes around the possibly-coffin, wondering if this was a dream. He couldn't see a lot, but -

"Hinata-kun." The voice was soft, and very familiar. He couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from. "Hinata-kun," the voice - the girl - said again. "Hinata-kun?"

"Is that me?" he muttered. Hinata... there was something he'd forgotten...

"Hinata-kun, you should simultaneously press the release buttons on either side of the pod," she said. "They are located near each of your hands."

He did as instructed, still unsure if "Hinata" was really him, and was rewarded by the "pod's" ceiling lifting up and back, revealing a much larger room. He sat up, and across the room he saw other people being helped out of their pods. Familiar people.

"Hinata-kun?"

The voice was back. He turned his head and saw her: sitting cross-legged on the pod next to him was a girl, the one who had spoken to him. Something in the back of his mind was screaming that he should _know_ her. He squeezed his eyes shut, head pounding. Why couldn't he remember?

"Hinata?"

This was a different, deeper voice. He opened his eyes to examine this voice's owner, who was now standing in front of him, looking concerned. He was dressed in a suit that had probably once looked sharp, but was now rather wrinkled. "Hey," said the boy. "Talk to me."

He opened his mouth, but couldn't figure out what to say. The boy in front of him... he felt familiar, like an old friend, and he was obviously concerned, but he couldn't remember him. His gaze traveled up to the boy's face, to his eyes - his -

"Your eye," he said, gripped with a terror he could not explain.

"My _eye_? What?" The boy reached up to gingerly touch his right eye, the one that was a sickening blue. "Shit, I'm not wearing an eyepatch, am I? Is it just fucking gross, or what?"

"It's _wrong_ ," he said, still not knowing why. He shut his eyes again, frustrated. The boy - the girl - the eye - it was all so, so familiar, and yet he couldn't have put a name to any of them, or even remember a thing about them. Or himself, for that matter. The more he tried to grasp at memories, the more they slipped through his fingers.

...So maybe, then, the answer was to calm down. Maybe if he wasn't struggling so hard to remember, the memories would come to him. It was worth a try. He breathed deeply, slowly, until his heart had stopped pounding.

When he opened his eyes again, the boy before him looked even more concerned. "Sorry about that," he said. "My head's kind of scrambled right now." His gaze lingered on the boy's eye again. "Your eye, it's... it's hers," he said, the explanation coming to his tongue before he'd realized it was true. It was hers... whoever 'she'... was...

"Shit, really? Fucking figures. They could've mentioned that when they woke me up. Assholes," the boy muttered, looking over his shoulder. Turning back to him, he said, "Thanks for telling me. I'll return the favor: apparently your eyes are red now? And your hair is, uh, longer. A _lot_ longer."

He reached back to feel his hair, and found that the boy was right; his hair was incredibly long. Ridiculously so. Where did it end?

"It's black now, too," said the girl, briefly startling him; she'd been silent for so long, he'd nearly forgotten she was there. "I don't know why; your hair used to be brown."

He glanced over at her, and saw her face scrunched up in adorable confusion - just like on the island - she hadn't changed, unlike him and -

The island -

Nanami -

What started as a trickle of memories soon became a flood, and the last thing he saw before the world fell away was Kuzuryuu's panicked face.

* * *

Waking up was much better the second time around. His memories were still muddled, but he remembered his name, he remembered his friends, and he remembered Nanami, and that was a welcome improvement over the first time.

"Oh, you're awake!" said Sonia, sitting at his bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"All right, I think. Some of my memories are still a bit fuzzy, but it's already much better than the first time I woke up, so I'm not worried."

"That's wonderful to hear! You gave us quite a scare, you know. Especially poor Fuyuhiko..."

"Haha... sorry about that..."

"It's quite all right. We're just glad you're okay!"

Hinata smiled.

"I should go let the others know you're awake. Be right back!"

As Sonia left, Hinata examined the room. It looked like one of the hospital rooms from the game... which meant this must be the hospital on the real Jabberwock Island.

"Hinata-kun."

Hinata jumped - there, sitting in the chair Sonia had just vacated, was Nanami, looking just like she had in the game. Just like she had before - before... Hinata realized he was clutching the sheets, and slowly let go. Whatever memory his brain was trying to drudge up could wait.

"Nanami," he whispered. "Are you real?"

She tilted her head. "Well, no one can see me but you," she said. His heart sank. "But I'm not quite a hallucination. Somehow during the shutdown, I was downloaded into your brain... I think."

"Oh!" He realized he was beaming. "If that's so, then - I'm glad... I'm glad you're not gone..."

"Thanks, Hinata-kun," she said, smiling.

She vanished when the rest of his friends burst through the door, Kuzuryuu leading the pack. "You bastard," Kuzuryuu was saying. "Passing out on me like that... You better not do that again, Hinata!"

The others were clamoring around him as well - and behind them, lurking behind Kuzuryuu, he could see Nanami, smiling.

"I'll do my best, said Hinata, smiling sheepishly.

"You better," muttered Kuzuryuu, but he looked relieved. He was wearing an eyepatch now, Hinata realized. The others all looked different as well, older, scarred. Owari looked to be on the verge of starvation. But they all looked happy to see him awake and, well, himself.

Hinata decided not to mention the whole 'AI in his brain' thing, for the time being.

* * *

At first, they had no idea how to even begin reviving their comatose friends. The trio from the Future Foundation had left more or less as soon as they had confirmed that Hinata and his friends were awake, not despairing, and wanted to stay on the island. The supplies, Naegi had assured them, should last them awhile, long enough for Naegi to sort things out with the Future Foundation.

But as the days passed, memories began to return, slowly but surely. Sometimes, they would leave Hinata shuddering awake, shaken by a dream of observing carnage and feeling nothing but vague interest. Sometimes Hinata wouldn't even realize he'd remembered something, like when it was his turn to cook breakfast and he ended up making pancakes for everyone. It was only after he sat down to eat with everyone that the others expressed surprise at his impressive talent with cooking, and he froze, remembering.

Kamukura had had every talent. Cooking was among them. The more he remembered, the more talented he became. He knew now, of course, that talent wasn't everything, but. The more he remembered, the more he could help.

Perhaps that was what left him standing in front of the mirror in his cottage one morning, examining his reflection. For the first time since his second awakening, he had donned the suit jacket he'd woken up in. The one Izuru Kamukura had been wearing. He'd wondered if wearing it would trigger some memories, but all he remembered when looking at his reflection was flashes of his life in the Reserve Course.

It was the short hair, probably. He grimaced. He was certainly capable of growing it out again; whatever the hell Hope's Peak had done to him to make him into Kamukura had also made his hair grow at an abnormally fast rate, for some ungodly reason. He had to cut it short every other morning. But growing his hair out... he would feel uncomfortably like he _was_ Kamukura, and not Hinata. Best to keep it short.

He turned away, walking back into his 'bedroom'. He intended to take off the jacket and stow it away once more, but some urge or instinct struck him, and he found himself sticking his hands in the jacket's pockets. Immediately he felt something strange: his right hand had found a small, hard object in the pocket.

Hinata froze. What would Kamukura find important enough to carry with him? A tracking device of some kind? Kamukura had been the one to introduce the Enoshima AI to the simulation - was this the device he'd used?

"Hinata-kun?" Nanami appeared before him. "Is everything all right?"

"I don't know," he said. He closed his trembling fingers around the object and drew it out of the pocket, hesitated, then held it up between him and Nanami.

The object was intimately familiar to him, and he felt his breath catch. It was a hair clip, stylized like a ship from a retro videogame. It was identical to the hair clip Nanami was wearing right now, except that it looked worn instead of brand-new. It was

it was

"Hinata-kun, you should probably sit down," came Nanami's voice. She sounded very far away. He felt himself sinking onto the bed, but was barely aware of it; it seemed like a minor detail, in the wake of the memories.

He didn't know how long he sat there remembering, before there was a knocking at his door. "Hey, asshole! You realize it's past breakfast, right?" A pause, then renewed pounding. "I swear to god Hinata, if you're passed out in there, you are not gonna like what happens!"

Hinata found his voice. "Come in," he croaked. Was he crying? Probably, he decided. It didn't matter.

Kuzuryuu swung open the door and stepped in, only to stop short at the sight of him. "Shit," he said, before striding across the room to sit next to him on the bed. "Hey, Hinata. Talk to me."

Hinata held up his right hand, forced his fingers to unclench.

Kuzuryuu inhaled sharply. "Is that Nanami's?"

He nodded.

"Shit, man." He exhaled. "I've been getting flashes of our time at Hope's Peak and she was always there. At the center, usually. I wasn't sure if those were real memories or things I dreamed up, since Nanami was in them, but... if she's real, then I guess those are, too." He paused. "Hey, where'd you find it, anyways?"

"It was in my jacket pocket. Kamukura had been carrying it with him. Ever since -" His voice broke. "Ever since she - " His eyes filled with tears again, and he couldn't speak.

Kuzuryuu wrapped an arm around him, and Hinata leaned into his comforting presence. In front of him, Nanami appeared, kneeling. She reached a hand up to his face, as if to wipe the tears away.

"It's all right, Hinata-kun," she said. "The real Nanami would be happy that you all are friends again, that you have hope... I think."

"You're real, too," Hinata whispered.

"What?" Kuzuryuu said, alarmed.

Of course, that was when Sonia and the others made their entrance. "Is everyone all right?" Sonia asked. "Neither of you returned to the restaurant, and we were worried... Ah." She had seen Hinata; swiftly, she crossed the room to sit on Hinata's other side. Souda and Owari followed, settling onto the other side of the bed, which was getting crowded. Hinata turned so that he could see all of them, and began to explain, about Nanami the Hope's Peak student, and the Nanami who now lived in his brain.

"Shit," Kuzuryuu said when he was done, then, "You could have told us about... about AI Nanami, before, you know."

"I," Sonia declared, "am simply glad that you have told us now." She offered Hinata a handkerchief, which he gratefully accepted.

"How did she even survive?" asked Souda. "I thought her avatar was deleted?"

Hinata could only shrug. "Maybe it wasn't fully deleted after all? Or maybe it was backed up somewhere?"

Souda stilled. "Hold on," he said. "If _her_ avatar survived, then the others..." He gasped. "This might not be as hopeless as we thought!"

"Hey!" Owari punched him in the shoulder. "It was never hopeless. Wasn't that the whole point of us staying here?"

"Kazuichi," said Sonia, eyes sparkling. "You have an idea?"

Souda looked thrilled to be addressed so. "Yes, Sonia-san!" He smiled widely. "If I'm right, then... I'll get started right away!" He leaped to his feet and bolted out of the cottage.

"Well," said Sonia, "that sounds promising!" She stood as well. "You should really come eat breakfast, Hajime. Or is it lunch, at this hour?"

"Second breakfast, here I come!" yelled Owari. She sprung off the bed and ran out, no doubt to the restaurant.

"We'll just call it brunch," Kuzuryuu decided.

"Whatever it is, it sounds good," said Hinata.

Sonia and Kuzuryuu both stood. "We'll see you there, Hajime," Sonia declared, before leaving, Kuzuryuu at her heels.

Now it was just him and Nanami. "I meant what I said, you know," Hinata finally said. "You're just as real as she was. Your being an AI doesn't change that. She was my friend, and you are, too."

"Thank you, Hinata-kun," she said, a soft smile on her face. "I'm happy to be your friend." She reached up as if to touch his face, and Hinata mirrored the action, reaching out and wishing he could touch her.

"We'll figure this out, Nanami," he vowed. "We'll wake up our friends, and then... we can help you, too. I'm sure Souda can build you a body. We can do this."

"I believe so, too, Hinata-kun," she said. "I believe in you."

He leaned forward, knowing it was foolish, knowing he would feel nothing against his lips. But Nanami leaned forward too, so he wasn't the only fool.

"You can do this, Hinata-kun," she finally said. "But right now, the others are waiting for you."

He smiled. "Right." He stood and tucked the hair clip into his pants pocket. Someday, he would be able to give it to her.


End file.
